There is a worldwide resurgence of interest in crude to chemicals (C2C) technologies driven by crude oil producer’s desire to diversify outlets for crude oil and to capture the increasing growth in petrochemicals. However, amongst other challenges, the intensive energy requirement to crack crude oil remains a major challenge in the development of C2C technologies. Here, we introduce two routes we have been researching to overcome this challenge - by turning crude cracking into an essentially thermoneutral process. 

The first route involves co-feeding a carefully optimised dose of an alcohol, aldehyde or a ketone to fuel the endothermic hydrocarbon cracking reaction without compromising yields and conversions. The second route involves Oxidative Cracking using metal oxides as oxygen carriers instead of free oxygen.  Although these technologies are still in the development stage, they definitely promise tangible performance and economic advantages.